


Outing

by yeaka



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Ficlet, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-09-30 18:26:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10169111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeaka/pseuds/yeaka
Summary: Spock brings the boys home.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Fill for “Family Dinner” prompt on [my bingo card](http://yeaka.tumblr.com/post/153917135000/my-holiday-themed-bingo-under-cut-you-can-make). I guess this is a canon divergence AU if read as AOS. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own Star Trek or any of its contents, and I’m not making any money off this.

Jim looks astoundingly attractive in most things, but his green command tunic is a singular exception. Spock watches out the corner of his eye as Jim wraps the extra folds around his middle, creating a most unseemly pouch that he must _know_ isn’t right for the occasion. If Spock thought he could get away with it without Leonard complaining twice as much as usual, he would’ve insisted they all wear dress uniforms. Instead, he winds up the only one dressed well, while Jim sports Starfleet’s oddest clothing choice to date and Leonard wears no more than a blue shirt and standard slacks. It’s an acceptable uniform for a doctor, yes, but hardly appropriate for a formal occasion.

Jim obviously doesn’t think the occasion’s formal at all, and he asks again before Spock opens the door of his bedroom, “You sure we should be wearing our boots inside?”

“They’d probably think we’re barbarians if we didn’t,” Leonard snorts, which Spock tries hard not to react to—for the life of him, he can’t remember why he ever thought this was a good idea.

He opts to do nothing but nod and gesture out his door, pleased when both his captain and doctor follow. He can see both repressing the urge to look wildly around as they walk down the hall—the same as when they first arrived—and Leonard throws in right before they hit the dining room, “So, when do we get to see this teddy bear of yours?”

Spock thinks of icily telling Leonard that I-Chaya died years ago, rather than the usual retort that a sehlat is _not_ a teddy bear, but there’s no time; they enter through the curved doorway to find both of Spock’s parents already neatly seated at the glass table, the meal all laid out before them. Sarek and Amanda are at either end, and Jim and Bones both walk around to take the other side, leaving Spock alone on his. He does vaguely wish that I-Chaya were around for this, merely to feel a comforting presence sit next to his feet beneath the table. He quickly shuts down the irrational thought. 

Amanda says first, “Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy—it’s lovely to have you both with us.” While her tone is sincere, there’s a slight note of confusion in it. Spock doesn’t ask why.

Jim offers a dazzling smile and returns, “Thank you; we’re pleased to be here.”

“Always a pleasure, Ma’am,” Leonard adds, voice slipping into that peculiar Terran accent he sometimes affects. “Especially if it means hearing more about Spock as a child.”

“I have just the album to show you after dinner,” Amanda chuckles. Spock stiffens in response.

His father, as rigid as him, is silent. Amanda takes her wine glass around the slender stem and lifts it above the table, announcing, “Please, dig in! I admit I’m a bit out of touch with Earth food, but I didn’t want to synthesize everything for such an occasion.”

Jim chirps, “It looks wonderful!” To Spock’s horror, he reaches to take a slice of pizza out of the otherwise perfect circle sitting in the center of the table. Having served on a primarily human ship, Spock’s familiar with all the of the Terran cuisine set out before them, and all of it makes his stomach churn—while, he’s sure, it’s all made vegan, it’s all _finger food_. He deliberately doesn’t look at his father. He works even harder at not looking at Jim, not when he _knows_ that Jim won’t be able to resist licking grease or crumbs off his fingers at one point or another. It’s telling that Leonard says nothing of how unhealthy the choices are. Spock watches Leonard’s thick fingers wrap around a samosa, then diverts his attention to trying to figure out a polite way to request cutlery; if he doesn’t, they’ll both undoubtedly _stare_ at the way he lifts his hands to his mouth, like he’ll likely be unable to resist doing to them...

With a deliberate breath, Spock reigns himself in. The dinner table is no place to meditate, even if it seems like that’s what Sarek must be trying to do. He tells himself that he knew this would be difficult, but it could be far worse; if this is the most embarrassing thing to happen to him today, he will have endured worse on many occasions—

“Spock,” Sarek interrupts his thoughts, tone idle and blessedly banal, “Have you gotten a chance to study professor Singh’s latest es—”

“Oh,” Amanda sighs right over him, “I _am_ sorry, Spock, I thought I could just have a nice dinner and wait until you were ready to explain, but I just can’t!” In Spock’s peripherals, he can see both Jim and Bones pausing mid-bite to watch their host. “Your communication was so ridiculously blunt for such an announcement! I thought it would at least be obvious when you brought whoever it was home, but I should’ve known you’d bring both, I know how dear both are to you—” It takes a good deal of Vulcan training not to wince. He already knows he’ll be faced with a good deal of ‘teasing’ from his colleagues when this dinner ends. “—but which is it? Who is to be my son-in-law?”

The earlier transmission was supposed to cover this. He wasn’t supposed to have to give any more preamble at all. He stares at his mother, trying once again to calculate her reaction, now that he knows it hasn’t, apparently, been automatic acceptance from the start. Sarek and Leonard are equally silent, but Jim says for him, “Both.”

Amanda swivels to him in surprise. Spock can feel his cheeks heating and forces himself to move a samosa to his plate. For a moment, Spock’s waiting to hear another spew of Vulcan rhetoric from his father that will inevitably lead to another decade-long separation. 

Indeed, Sarek starts, “Spock—”

But Amanda sharply overrules, “Lovely. We’re delighted for all of you.” Spock chances looking up to find Amanda glaring across the table. It’s perhaps the most human he’s ever seen her, but it works—Sarek closes his mouth again. She continues her fierce look until he’s—albeit slowly and awkwardly—taken a slice of pizza onto his plate. He doesn’t seem able to do any more with it. 

Jim throws in, “So, what would be a good place on Vulcan for a bachelor party? We need three.” Leonard buries his short laugh in a samosa. Amanda begins a lively account of all the local attractions, and Spock proceeds to melt through the floor.


End file.
